Tournaments come in many different forms, such as martial arts, card games, music, chess, athletics, to name a few. While many tournaments involve single individuals all competing against each other, some have teams competing against one another.
These types of tournaments have a number of cliches and common plot elements as a result of the team-based dynamic. Some of the more common ones include:
- A member of the heroes' team having to fight against an enemy team on their lonesome.
- A powerful character being weakened by a member of a rival team enough that the next member of said rival team can take them out.
- A character being established as particularly powerful by taking out an entire rival team by themselves.
- In contests where characters' teammates compete simultaneously, teammates will combine their abilities.
- The most important characters' teams will be more varied both theme-wise and ability-wise, while less important teams tend to have a focused theme or gimmick. Sometimes only the main characters are unique, while every other team follows a gimmick
- Expect at least one team (usually the main character's) having a hard time finding enough members to qualify for the tournament.
- Enemies or rivals being forced to work together on the same team either because of a common goal or because of a lack of other options.
- A dishonorable team might decide to cripple one or more of the other teams by taking out one of their members. This will either lead to disqualification or having to compete with fewer members. In the case of the former, this is resolved by either having a substitute take over or by having the crippled teammate insisting on competing despite their injury.
- An uncooperative member of the team will end up handicapping their team by being unwilling to work together. Said character may or may not learn the a lesson about the importance of teamwork.
- Some tournaments don't actually require their competitors to be on a team, which means that some people might choose to compete alone. If anyone is competing by themselves, it is a sign that they are a One-Man Army.
- The Hero's and The Rival's/Big Bad's teams' match being the final one.
Supertrope to Battle of the Bands. Naturally, this trope often overlaps with Tournament Arc and Not Just a Tournament.
No Real Life Examples, Please! They're too numerous—any team sports tournament would qualify for this trope, but the site would only list them on Useful Notes pages.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You:
- Rentarou's girlfriends are a Taste the Rainbow pack that continuously grows with each passing volume. Whenever they compete against a large group, the Opposing Sports Team they've faced the most is the Gorira Alliance, whose members all look alike except for the leader and her boyfriend. While they first compete in a bouquet toss at a park, and second in an Eating Contest, they're all on good terms with one another when they're not participating in any contest.
- Iku's introductory arc consists of Rentarou and the girls playing baseball against Jurassic High's baseball team, whose members are closely themed around dinosaurs. The pitcher manages to dislocate Iku's shoulder with one of her pitches, and the catcher demeans Shizuka in an attempt to invoke the mercy rule for the game. The latter quickly proves to be a huge mistake for Jurassic High. Though after the game, all hard feelings on both ends are dropped.
- Happens several times in Baki the Grappler
- Five Most Evil Death Rown Innmates arc is technically one, with the Innmates forming one team and the fighters of the underground arena forming another. The rules stated the fighters can attack members of another team anywhere, at any time and fights are full no-holds-barred, leading to situations like two fighters teaming up on a single opponent or other characters interfering in the fights.
- The Great Chinese Challenge arc starts as a standard tournament...up until Kaku Kaioh doesn't get fed up with Japanese and American fighters humiliating Chinese fighters, takes over, and declares it a team tournament between Team China and Team Foreigners.
- Baki Dou manga is entirely about one of those when the appearance of Nomi no Sukune the Second shakes the underground martial arts scene so much it leads to a group tournament between underground arena fighters and the strongest of sumos.
- Dragon Ball Super: The Tournament of Power in the "Universe Survival Arc" is a martial arts tournament between different universes, each one having 10 fighters participating in team battles. Each team that has all ten fighters knocked out of the tournament will have their universe erased. The match will last for 48 Earth minutes and the winner is decided by which team has the most fighters left in the ring or if there is only one team left in the ring.
- Fairy Tail
- The S-Class exams involve teams of two- one person being the mage who is seeking promotion, and the other being a chosen partner who can be anyone besides another candidate.
- The Grand Magic Games involves guilds entering teams of five people, plus one alternate. In most events, the mages compete individually, but they fight in pairs later on, and the entire teams compete together on the final day.
- Purgatory Tournament from Kengan Omega is a result of conflict between Kengan Association and its Chinese equivalent, the Purgatory. Being two associations allowing corporations to resolve their conflicts through Combat by Champion, they decide to put up a tournament between their best fighters, with the winning organisation absorbing the loser into itself. Kengan Team actually ends up struggling due to the tournament using Purgatory rules, which are more restrictive than what they're used to.
- Whole premise of Record of Ragnarok, where Valkyrie Brunhilde convinces the Gods to, instead of destroying humanity, put a tournament between thirteen gods and thirteen greatest of men, empowered by valkyries to be able to harm the gods.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: The WRGP (World Racing Grand Prix) is a tournament consisting of three-person teams of Turbo Duelists from around the world. Due to the team-based nature of the tournament, there are a number of extra rules that the various teams exploit as part of their strategy.
- Teammates transfer cards that are on the field to the next player but otherwise aren't allowed to share cards with one another, which results in many teams keeping important cards on the field as part of a larger strategy or trying to stop their opponent's team from using dangerous cards by destroying them.
- Each duelist has to be able to return their D-Wheel to the pit to switch out, which becomes a plot point during the duel with Team Catastrophe, as their strategy is to crash their opponent's D-Wheel in order to gain a victory by default. During their duel with Team 5D's, Team Catastrophe ends up accidentally using their own strategy against themselves when their second member uses a card that ends up destroying his own D-Wheel.
- Team 5D's team normally consists of Yusei, Crow, and Jack, but during the duel against Team Unicorn, Aki has to sub for Crow due to an injury.
- Interestingly, Sherry's team only consists of two people (Sherry and Mizoguchi), as they couldn't find a third member, which the tournament allows by having both members start with 6000 life points rather than 4000.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: The "Sports Duel Cup" is a Tag-Duel-based tournament that Girag tricks Yuma into hosting as part of a plan to get his hand on the Number cards. During the final duel, Shark, who was supposed to be Yuma's partner, leaves, meaning that Girag has to sub for him, which is bad because 1: If Girag loses to a "CXYZ" user (which Kotori and Cathy are thanks to Girag), he will die and 2: Girag convinced Yuma to lose on purpose, which Yuma tries to do by sabotaging Girag. Fortunately, once Yuma figures out that Kotori and Cathy are possessed, he works with Girag to win the duel.
- YuYu Hakusho: The Dark Tournament arc is a demonic tournament arc set in the underworld for which Yusuke has to assemble a team of five combatants. They then have to compete as a team against other teams to hopefully win the tournament, as a team.
Comic Books
- During Avengers vs. X-Men, students from the Xavier School were sent to Avengers Academy to keep them out of the conflict. In the hopes of keeping tensions between the two schools to a minimum, the staff at Avengers Academy arranged a tournament between the two groups with multiple categories (like racing, surfing, etc.).
Fan Works
- The Flash Sentry Chronicles: The main premise of War of the Lost City essentially acts as one of these. Team Flash and the Cult of Shadow were both summoned to the Lost City of Faust by the same unknown force. Upon both teams arriving, and Team Flash being joined by Fire Heart and Shining Soul, they are separated into two giant castles on opposite sides of the city, and the mysterious force then forces them to compete in three-on-three fights chosen at random, with the winner of each fight being whoever retrieves a hidden glowing orb first. From there, it is an all out war between the two teams, with them slowly learning the secrets of the city. The climax of the story eventually has the leaders of both teams, Flash and Shadow, respectively fighting the members of every other member of the opposing team all at once, and then one final match between the two of them to decide the ultimate winner.
- Oversaturated World: Unfriendly Competition is the fanfic's version of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games and therefore has its own intermural competition, replacing canon motocross with a "two-lap relay race".
Films — Animated
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games: Two schools compete against each other in the titular games.
Films — Live-Action
- Sidekicks has a tournament near the end of the film. The main characters needed four team members in the tournament, and they only had three — before recruiting Chuck Norris.
Literature
- The Asterisk War: The Phoenix Festa consists of two-on-two bouts where teams of Genestella try to either break both opposing team members' badges or render them unconscious. The Gryps Festa instead follows a Golden Snitch format with two teams of five that try to defeat the opposing team's designated leader for an immediate victory, whereas defeating another member only eliminates that member.
- Reign of the Seven Spellblades: The "combat leagues" take up the bulk of the year three books, consisting of teams of three students each (in tiers of second- and third-years, fourth- and fifth-years, and sixth- and seventh-years) competing to qualify for the team battle rounds, wherein the team that wins the most victories in the round-robin format final round is crowned champion. In volume 9, however, Team Valois and Team Cornwallis are forced to withdraw, which leads to the faculty switching to a winner-take-all format for the match between the protagonist Team Horn and Team Andrews. Justified because one of the major purposes of Kimberly Magic Academy is to train an order of Military Mages called the Gnostic Hunters, whose job is to protect the world from Alien Invasions and cults.
- Shin High School D×D: The Azazel Cup is a tournament-style Ratings Game in which teams of up to ten participants compete for the grand prize of one wish. Unlike a regular Ratings Game, which is typically held between Devils and their peerages, the Azazel Cup allows participants from any species.
Live-Action TV
- This is the core plot of Four Week Continuous Super Sentai Strongest Battle. Thirty-two teams of five Rangers, with each team composed of Rangers who share a theme for the most part, all vie for the chance to have a wish granted. The mini-series focuses on the Oddball Team, composed of Yamato Kazakiri/Zyuoh Eagle, Captain Marvelous/Gokai Red, Takaharu Igasaki/Akaninger, Stinger/Sasori Orange, and Kagura Izumi/ToQ #5, whose common trait is, ironically enough, a lack of commonality.
- Kamen Rider Build: Midway through the series the heroes, representing Touto and a rump Hokuto, face off against a trio of antagonists representing Seito for the fate of Japan, in a best-of-three series of duels.
Tabletop Games
- Magic: The Gathering: a long-lasting game variant is "Two-Headed Giant", where teams of two play against each other. Each team has a combined life total instead of two separate ones.
Video Games
- Crash Nitro Kart: The plot of the game is that Team Bandicoot or Team Cortex are competing in a racing tournament where they will be enslaved if they lose. During the story mode, having one of your teammates get first place counts as a victory for the player.
- Dragon Quest XI: when the player first arrives in Octagonia, they become involved in a tournament where teams of two randomized pairings fight each other. Rab and Jade are the only ones who gained an exception and were allowed to keep their normal duo intact.
- Final Fantasy VII Remake: Part of Cloud and Aerith's "date" involves fighting together against various teams in the Corneo Colosseum.
- The King of Fighters: The plots of the games typically involve tournaments consisting of three-person teams of fighters from all over the world. Some of the earlier games used the "Striker" system, which allowed teams to have a fourth teammate who acted as an Assist Character but didn't actually fight. The Final Boss of the games typically fights alone (not that it makes them a cakewalk).
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: The Glitz Pit is a colosseum that allows competitors to compete either alone or in teams. At one point in the story, someone Rawk Hawk sends Mario a cake, and if he decides to eat it, he won't be able to use his partner for one battle due to the cake being poisoned.
- Sonic Free Riders: The plot of the game involves four teams of racers (Team Heroes, Team Babylon, Team Rose, and Team Dark) competing in a tournament for a cash prize. Each team's story mode has you switching between members of that team between races.
- A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: Terranoire's Coliseum's Standard and Expert Arenas where "Multiple participants can enter" as the explanation lady says, and the explanation signs say "Participants must fight four battles without resting."
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: The plot of the "Win Lose and Kaboom!" three-parter is about an interplanetary game-show in which teams from various planets compete with each other for the grand prize of not having their planets destroyed. The Earth Team (consisting of Jimmy, Cindy, Carl, Sheen, Libby, and Bolbi) struggles at first due to Jimmy's insistence on calling all of the shots, but later start doing better once Jimmy puts his ego aside and starts listening to the others.
